A favourite book of mine is Thomas Mann's Der Zauberberg. I'd really like to hear excerpts read aloud - Erstes Kapitel, zum Beispiel. But I can only find huge HÃ¶rbÃ¼cher series consisting of between 15 and 36 audio-CDs. Anyone know if a smaller sampling is available?

Interaxus, I've found these two sites useful (I don't know offhand whether they have anything by Thomas Mann, however):
http://vorleser.net/http://www.hoergold.de/I think many audio book sites have "HÃ¶rproben" (hier, zum Beispiel) which might enable you to get at least a taste of what it sounds like.

Spiphany, thanks for the comment. Actually it's an American German didactic tradition to call "high school" Hochschule since American high school is definitely not the same as a German Gymnasium. Tho' I don't have a problem using it if it eliminates confusion.

My undying thanks for those links. Admittedly I didn't find the Zauberberg sample I was initially looking for but I DID find an exquisite reading of Rilke's Duineser Elegien (1-5). Praise be to the angelic orders of the Internet. Now just imagine if I could one day find such a perfect reading in Latin of Vergil or Horace ...!